In Win Over Spurs, Warriors Show They are More Than a Jump Shooting Team

The Warriors’ 110-99 win over the visiting San Antonio Spurs doesn’t really count, if you ask some.

Sure, the Warriors exacted revenge on one of the few teams that have beat them this year. They pretty much ran the defending champions Spurs out the gym, ending a streak of seven straight losses to San Antonio (including the playoffs). But it wasn’t real.

Why not? The Warriors made 17 3-pointers on Friday. It was another fluky performance by a jump-shooting team. Fool’s good.

Because in the playoffs, where the pace slows and jump shooters clinch up like an old lady carrying a purse downtown, they won’t make all those 3s. This game was evidence, to some, that the Warriors are much more a fantasy team than a legit title contender — they’re only good when they’re making 3s.

“That adage was true for a long time in the NBA, that you couldn’t win championships with 3-point shooting. But I think that’s been proven wrong. It’s a different game.”

That was Kerr’s polite way of calling Charles Barkley old school. OK, he didn’t call Barkley old school, I did. But Kerr agrees with me.

What this game showed is the Warriors, at their best, are balanced enough offensively that it’s incredibly unlikely a team will be able to deny their 3-point shooting. What this game showed was what really feeds the Warriors is defense, not 3-pointers, and that’s a distinction that separates these Warriors from the franchise’s previous jump-shooting installations.

Another thing this game showed: even though some believe this style can’t win a title, most teams are petrified the Warriors indeed hit 17 of 33 from 3-point range and become virtually unbeatable — and that fact alone helps them get the inside offense they are accused of not having.

The Warriors were outscored 44-40 in the paint Friday. But they only needed 31 shots to get 40, while the Spurs shot just 52.4 percent in the paint.

The Warriors don’t have a Zach Randolph to dump it down low to. But they came into the game third in the league in points in the paint per game (46.1), behind Memphis and New Orleans. The Warriors get inside scoring, just in a different fashion. It’s not as reliable as a dominant post player. But as a compliment to great 3-point shooting, it’s working.

Miami won two titles without a low-post scoring option. Dallas won it as well without a post-up player.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, known for their shooting, averaged a combined 13.2 points in the paint per game. That’s more than than Oklahoma City’s starting backcourt, which features Russell Westbrook. More than Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and DeMarr DeRozan, and Washington’s John Wall and Bradley Beal.

And Curry entered the All-Star break shooting 61.4 percent inside of 15 feet — a percentage you’d want from a low-post scorer who lives in the paint.

“It might not be a conventional way of getting it done,” Curry said after totaling 25 points and 11 assists Friday. “We get like seven, eight post-ups a game and work around that. Fast-break points and dribble penetration is huge for us. We have a lot of good spacing and are able to open up those lanes to attack.”

Nearly half the Warriors inside points come from fast-break points, posting a league-high 21.2 per game. They also lead the league in points of turnovers at But over half of their inside they do lead the NBA in fast-break points (21.2) and points of turnovers (up to 20.0 per game after racking up 26 against San Antonio).

That points to the real strength of the Warriors: defense. The Warriors’ inside scoring isn’t contingent on 3-point shooting anymore than it is on David Lee playing with his back-to-the-basket. The inside scoring the Warriors’ need to supplement their shooting is based on defense.

If they get stops, they can run. If they run, they get points in the paint — the very high-percentage offense you need in the playoffs.

What if they get trapped in a half-court game? The answer is the same: get stops and push the tempo off misses. The Warriors took over the game Friday when they shut down the Spurs offense. They closed the first half on a 19-9 run, then opened the second half with a 7-0 run.

Four turnovers by the Spurs fueled the second-quarter run. Then 1-for-10 shooting by the Spurs fueled the third-quarter run.

“That’s when we really started to defend,” Kerr said. “I thought our speed and quickness defensively, our activity and then with forced turnovers we got out and ran. … We figured we could run them and hopefully wear them down.”

The tempo picked up, San Antonio got spread out and sped past. The result was the Warriors getting open driving lanes which led to good looks at 3-pointers. And they made them.

They didn’t make a bunch of 3s then the game opened up. They picked up the defense and that opened up the 3s.

“As long as we’re shooting good ones,” Curry said. “There is a difference between shooting contested 3s after no ball movement vs. what we did tonight. We moved the ball, got some touches in the paint, and were driving and kicking. We’ll take those all day.

“Where we get in trouble,” Curry explained, “where people think that’s going to hurt us is if the offense gets stagnant and we try to bail ourselves out by forcing up long-distance shots instead of getting it into the paint. I think we’re getting a lot better at knowing the difference between a good 3 and a bad 3, and if we take a lot of good 3s, we’ll be in good shape.”

The area of weakness with the Warriors, for sure, is where to go for high-percentage offense in a half-court set. Especially against good defense.

Other than picking up the defense, a lot of it rides on the motion offense – which is about getting it to a big man in the high post and a serious of cuts and motions off of that. A lot of it also rides on Curry attacking off the pick-and-roll or in isolations, using his handle and craftiness to get into the lane.

That’s not as sure fire as a Randolph type. Another shortcoming this type of inside scoring has is it doesn’t lead to a lot of free throws. Getting to the line is a great way to get points in slow, defensive-oriented games.

But the Warriors do have more than just 3-pointers. And more critical than them making them is the defense they play to get them.

Even with that, a glaring reality is clear: few teams can actually slow the Warriors down. It takes certain pieces that not everyone has. And those teams, such as Memphis and Chicago — who live on high percentage shots, making it harder to get the stops the Warriors’ need — still are terrified of the Warriors going hot from 3. So they extend their defense. They trap Curry. That actually plays into what the Warriors want to do — spread you out and pass the ball to get open looks.

The big fear is what the Warriors will do when the 3-point shot isn’t falling. But in their minds, they won’t have to solve that riddle too often. Because if they execute offensively and defensively, they’re going to get open looks. And if they get open looks, they don’t plan on being cold for too long.

“The game has changed,” Kerr said. “We like our team. We’re going to keep doing what we do and see what happens.”